


Talent

by Fire_Bear



Series: Tumblr Requests [37]
Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: Bets & Wagers, Classical Music, M/M, Pop music, Singing, Talent Shows, brief allusion to domestic abuse, rock music
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-14 01:59:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9152527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fire_Bear/pseuds/Fire_Bear
Summary: Eggsy's decided to enter a talent show and who should ruin his fun but Charlie Hesketh who thinks he will win. Eggsy's determined to prove him wrong.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aliesiar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliesiar/gifts).



> It’s supposed to be set in America somewhere to explain why Charlie and Eggsy are at the same school (which isn’t mentioned…) but I don’t think that really comes across… Whoops.
> 
> For the prompt: “Wanna bet?”
> 
> (Now, I realise that I've basically written the plot to Sing which, y'know, Taron Egerton...)

It was the night of the talent show and Eggsy was excited. He couldn't wait to get on stage and sing. At home, he didn't get the chance, seeing as Dean was often around and being a dick. According to his step-father, singing was for gays and girls. Not that he knew that Eggsy was comfortably bisexual but what he didn't know couldn't kill Eggsy.

The acts were grouped together backstage by genre, as it were: all the singers together, all the dancers, all the comedians. Each of them had a waiting area so Eggsy was separated from his best friends, Ryan and Jamal. The pair were doing a comedy double act and would be performing before Eggsy. They'd promised to cheer the loudest when Eggsy went on.

Unfortunately for Eggsy, his excitement was curbed somewhat by the proximity of the preening Charlie. The other teenager was fiddling with a lock of his hair which wouldn't slick back properly. A group of girls had sneaked backstage and were huddled around the corner, peering at him and giggling. Of course, Charlie noticed and occasionally smirked at them, something Eggsy thought was rather creepy.

He decided to ignore him, keeping as far from the guy as possible. Eventually, though, it was just him and Charlie, everyone else having already sung and the girls herded away. That was when Charlie spoke up. “What makes _you_ think you can win?”

Eggsy frowned at him. “What makes you think I  _can't_ ?”

Charlie snorted. “In case you hadn't noticed, the only people singing in this competition are boys who can still hit the high notes and girls. As for me, I've been classically trained. How much training have you had?”

With a sinking feeling, Eggsy clenched his fists. He'd only entered because his friends all said he was good. Maybe he shouldn't have bothered. “Maybe I don't  _need_ training,” he said instead.

At that, Charlie outright laughed. “Well, aren't you optimistic?” he sneered.

“Hesketh!” came a voice and they both turned to find Roxy, the girl who was in charge of the programme order. “You're up.” She disappeared, obviously confident that Charlie would follow.

“Well,” said Charlie, still looking smug. “Good luck.”

Laughing, he stalked off. Eggsy glared after him. What was so great about being 'classically trained', anyway? Charlie couldn't be that good, could he? A seed of doubt began to grow and he took a quick glance around the room. Seeing as no-one was there, he crept through the dark corridor and made his way to the edge of the stage. Roxy spotted him but merely raised an eyebrow and stepped aside so he could see Charlie standing in the middle, facing a sea of faces. There was an anticipatory silence as music played somewhere.

Then Charlie took a deep breath and began to sing.

Whatever it was, it wasn't English. It sounded like something from an opera and Eggsy guessed it was Italian or something similar. Maybe French. Frankly, he was amazed something like that came from Charlie – he always imagined opera singers to be big blokes and Charlie was a lot skinnier, as far as he had seen in the changing rooms. The audience was transfixed, no-one giggling or heckling him. Perhaps all of them were as surprised as he was.

However, he doubted Charlie actually knew what the words meant. The guy was a massive show-off so Eggsy figured he'd merely learnt the song and hadn't learnt Italian in a few weeks. Eggsy imagined the words meant something dirty and snickered to himself before ducking away from the edge of the curtain lest he be heard and the scary Roxy hit him over the head or something.

When Charlie had finally finished, he turned and walked towards where Eggsy still stood. Startled, Eggsy tried to get away before he noticed but he saw Charlie's sneer and knew it was too late. “Looking for tips?” Charlie asked him when he reached Eggsy.

Eggsy snorted. “Nah. Don't wanna look like a pretentious prick.”

“Ha! At least I'll win first place.”

“Wanna bet?” said Eggsy, his pulse picking up as he realised that he was about to go on stage and essentially fight to bump the smug Charlie out of top spot.

Charlie seemed to consider Eggsy's words before nodding. “I'll take on that bet.  _When_ I win, you do as I say for a month.”

“And when  _I_ win, you do what  _I_ say for a month.”

“Fine.”

They shook hands and Charlie left, heading for the door into the auditorium. Meanwhile, Eggsy chewed on his lip, considering the Michael Bublé song he was intending to sing. He'd picked it as it was a good song and he felt it showed the talent his friends told him he had. Plus, it was the James Bond-esque one. Now, though, he knew he needed something more to wow the audience with. Taking out his phone, he scrolled through his songs and soon landed on one he liked. He grinned as he envisioned his act and quickly turned to Roxy, aware that there were a few more people still to go on before him.

“Hey,” he said, rather cautiously. “Is it okay to change my song?”

* * *

Finally, it was Eggsy's turn. He strode on stage with a grin, waving in the direction of several of the cheers – Jamal and Ryan must have whipped up support at some point. When he reached the middle of the stage, he lifted the microphone to his lips and spoke.

“I know the programme says I'm singing a certain song but I changed my mind. So this is Bad Attitude.”

The music started and he launched into the song, letting himself lose himself in it, grin still on his face. He bopped his head as he sang, the words forming quickly, the song far faster than the one he had been practising. But he could do it, he knew he could, so he sang with feeling, imagining Charlie's stupid face – that idiot really did have a bad attitude, so it helped to inject passion into his singing.

When the music wound down for a second after the third verse, Eggsy took a running jump and landed in the audience. There was a chorus of squeals from the girls who had been getting into it and a cheer went up. So he started to walk down the aisle, singing to them. Girls held their hands out as if he was some kind of celebrity and he brushed against them. He came upon the dancing Jamal and Ryan and gave them high fives.

Halfway down the aisle, he came upon a gap due to the old railing which was there. He leapt upon it and, with light feet, he ran along before dropping down on the other side. Again, he went further from the stage, running his hand along the ones outstretched for him. Eventually, he had run out of people to impress so he took long strides to make his way back to the stage.

Along the way, he spotted Charlie gaping at him from the end of a row close to the front. Grinning, Eggsy stopped in front of him, just in time to sing to him, knowing the words applied to him just as much as they applied to Eggsy.

“An' every hero was once,” he sang, placing a hand to his chest. “Every villain was once” - he pointed at Charlie - “just a boy with a bad attitude.” He repeated the refrain with the same actions. Deciding to continue showing Charlie up, he carried on singing while staring pointedly at him, making it sound like Charlie was the guy letting the girl in the song down. A mischievous thought struck Eggsy and he leant into Charlie, took him by the arm and sang, as softly as he could, into his ear, “Don't be afraid of me, angel, I ain't about to clip your wings.” Then he pulled back and walked off, thinking he had embarrassed Charlie enough.

At the front, he danced with the people there, more of them flooding into the space available when he stayed there for a while. Then, as the music repeated the part where he had jumped down at, he took advantage of a brief gap in the crowd to jump, push off the edge of the stage and flip onto it so he stood upon it just in time to sing the next part.

“Well, there are winners and outlaws and leaders and lovers,” he sang, pointing at himself and everyone laughed at his audacity. He grinned down at them all, continuing the song till he realised that the song was coming to an end and, with one last “you got a bad attitude”, pointing in Charlie's direction, he finished. A cheer erupted and it was deafening. Eggsy laughed and, with a quick salute, hurried towards Roxy.

“What d'ya think?” he asked her, ignoring how hot and sweaty he was now.

She grinned back. “Nice. And I think you'll be winning that bet of yours. I wish I could see Charlie's face – I bet it looks like he's sucking on a lemon!”

Eggsy laughed and went away to the waiting area in order to pick up his bag. Neither he nor Roxy were witness to Charlie's actual expression or his red face as he held a hand to his ear.


End file.
